Tim Cook met with shareholders for the first time following the passing of Apple's cofounder and former chief executive Steve Jobs, revealing his own very distinct personality but also strong commonality with Jobs' wit, passion and analytical focus.

Following an introductory vote on seven issues before shareholders, Cook took the stage as Apple's chief executive and addressed the audience noting the loss he and the rest of Apple felt, saying, "not a day goes by that I don't miss him."

Cook acknowledged the condolences expressed by many in attendance, and said he is determined to "continue the journey" Jobs had been leading, as "that's what he'd want."

A Mind boggling year of products

Cook then turned his attention to the products Apple had released over the last year, saying it was "mind boggling" that so many very successful products had been released in such a short period of time.

He specifically noted iPhone 4S and Siri, adding that the new voice assistance service is now a recognized brand in nearly every country. He also praised the enhanced camera in the new phone, saying it was a "better camera than I've ever owned by a country mile," and noted that the majority of the pictures being uploaded to online photo sharing sites are done via the phone.

Cook also reiterated that the iPod remains the top selling music player with more than 70 percent market share around the world, and said that with new releases of the MacBook Pro, MacBook Air and iMac, Apple "is the only company innovating in the PC space."

Describing the App Store, with a library of apps now over 550,000, Cook said Apple's iOS had taken "mobile apps" from virtually nothing to become a huge economy that is creating a new jobs segment that didn't exist anymore and referred to iOS as a "jobs platform."

Source: ImagineChina/AP Photo via Bloomberg

Facts with a side of wit and passion

Cook also noted the iTunes Store was close to hitting its milestone of 25 billion app downloads, and pointed out Apple retail stores had passed 360 locations, with 110 million visitors in the last quarter. He contrasted the 50,000 people who once attended Macworld Expo with the 1 million people who now visit Apple stores every day, the very augment Jobs used to explain why Apple had stopped attending the annual exhibition.

Apple earned $108 billion in the last fiscal year, $43 billion of which was new growth over the previous year. That, Cook said, was more growth that HP, Dell Nokia, HTC, Google and RIM combined. "Really mind blowing," Cook said, adding that it wasn't too long ago that Apple was reporting $5 billion revenues.

Cook noted an additional $46 billion in revenue for its first fiscal (winter) quarter, coyly adding, "we had an extra week, for full disclosure," eliciting laughs from the audience.

Across all retailers, Cook added, Apple's MacBook Pro was the top selling PC.

Cook later meekly alluded to shareholder's votes of directors, saying "it doesn't matter who gets the most votes," some time after the host of the formal segment of the meeting had recounted that Cook himself had the received the highest percentage of confirmation votes among shareholders, a figure that exceeded 98 percent.

Cook then invited Phil Schiller and Peter Oppenheimer to answer shareholder questions, boldly answering a question about whether Apple considers Facebook a "friend or foe," unequivocally saying "Facebook is a friend," and noting that "it's not like there is significant overlap in the things we do."

Apple and Facebook have often been described as being in an adversarial relationship, following Facebook's "onerous terms" that killed integration with iTunes Ping, and a delay in releasing a finished iPad app last year.

On the subject of social networking, Cook also mentioned iMessages, pointing out that Apple now handles a tremendous amount of traffic that "makes the [iTunes Store] content numbers seem small."

When a representative from a family-oriented organization commended Apple for keeping adult content out of the App Store and then challenged the company to pull its advertising from shows it found objectionable, including the "Family Guy" cartoon, Cook noted that we don't all agree on specific examples, but noted that Apple does more than anyone in providing privacy and parental controls in its software.

Cook highlighted Apple's leadership role as "doing things substantially different" from its competitors, a reference that seemed intended at Google, which has largely allowed any content to exist with little curative control over the Android platform.

Apple in education

When encouraged to fund more scholarships for engineering and science students, Cook noted that "we believe education is a great equalizer," and highlighted that an "incredible" percentage of the employee matching program Apple started last year had gone to funding education and scholarships.

Cook also highlighted Apple's recent iBooks Author initiative, noting that the tool Apple offers for free was worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, and added that Apple's other contributions to education, from grants to discounts, amounted to three quarters of a billion dollars last year.

"We're always searching for how we can do more," Cook said, adding that over the last year Apple's student intern program had grown to the largest yet, with over 600 interns on the Cupertino campus and hundreds more in other locations. Cook noted that hundreds of student interns are going back to school with job offers from Apple.

That IS a gorgeous image. I should be able to have some fun with that.

I love how everywhere else that uses the image is saying that Tim Cook gets "378 million in his first year" and how that comes out to "over a million per day", completely ignoring that it's over the next ten years and not just this year's pay.

Twenty years ago, Apple was a train wreck, in many, many ways. It was the Amelio era, and Windows was kicking the Mac's OS7 graphical interface's ass. Innovation had ceased and the Mac's marketshare was plummeting. I believe I bought some AAPL for about $7 back then.

I believed in Apples. I dreamed and I knew that someday they would - finally - get it right, simply because there were too many of us that wanted it to happen. I knew, in my gut, when Jobs came back in 96', that the leadership we craved had arrived. Steve taking Apple to the #1 company on the planet? I thought of and imagined those things back then, I still can't believe it, can't believe he really did it. $500 a share? Thank you Steve, thank you so much for such a precious gift. Truly, thank you so much.

It is apparent that Tim's leadership is of equal and superior caliber of, and is in fact, a continuity of Steve's successful strategies, so the question of succession is laid to rest.

However, in less than five years Apple will hold $1 trillion in cash and with that kind of money you can change the world, again.

So my question is:

"Mr Cook, looking beyond mere content and gadgets, it's your turn to change the world. So please tell me what you're going to do with that Trillion dollars in 2017?"

"Mr Cook, looking beyond mere content and gadgets, it's your turn to change the world. So please tell me what you're going to do with that Trillion dollars in 2017?"

I think Apple's got something up its sleeve that they haven't revealed as yet. It seems to me that all this server space they're building is not just for iTunes or Apps or even a future Apple TV. There's something else going on.

However, for all the greatness that Apple has achieved recently, this was all in the pipeline before Steve left us. The big question is are we going to see evolutionary change or revolutionary change after the pipeline products are released.

In another forum, someone else mentioned the possibility of Apple getting involved in robotics. While the initial markets for robotics is in industry, which I don't think is something Apple would want to get too involved with, there will eventually be a future for robotics in the home (although some pundits think the initial must have application will be sexual services). I think Siri is a first step towards a consumer robotics future.

Twenty years ago, in March of 1992, Apple released the Macintosh LCII. It had a 16MHz processor, 1 core, a 500 byte cache, a 40-80MB hard disk (the size of a single Photoshop file), and 2MB of memory (with a max of 10MB). It cost $1240, which is $2003 in 2012 dollars.

Five years ago, the iPhone was announced, but hadn't shipped yet. The iPad was still three years away.

It's hard for me to imagine where we'll be in five years, never mind twenty.

Or tomorrow and many tomorrows after that. He not only mentioned the price but also commented on the ability to match it to any big screen TV. That is the careful speak I would imagine from an Apple exec if they weren't going to be releasing an Apple HDTV shortly.

In fact, I'm predicting the 2 year old AppleTV gets updated to support 1080p, along with the new iPad and iTS support for 1080p videos (even though the videos won't likely be much higher in size than their 720p videos).

This bot has been removed from circulation due to a malfunctioning morality chip.

Tim Cook met with shareholders for the first time following the passing of Apple's cofounder and former chief executive Steve Jobs, revealing his own very distinct personality but also strong commonality with Jobs' wit, passion and analytical focus. Following an introductory vote on seven issues before shareholders, Cook took the stage as Apple's chief executive and addressed the audience noting the loss he and the rest of Apple felt, saying, "not a day goes by that I don't miss him." Cook acknowledged the condolences expressed by many in attendance, and said he is determined to "continue the journey" Jobs had been leading, as "that's what he'd want."

Twenty years ago, in March of 1992, Apple released the Macintosh LCII. It had a 16MHz processor, 1 core, a 500 byte cache, a 40-80MB hard disk (the size of a single Photoshop file), and 2MB of memory (with a max of 10MB). It cost $1240, which is $2003 in 2012 dollars.

Five years ago, the iPhone was announced, but hadn't shipped yet. The iPad was still three years away.

It's hard for me to imagine where we'll be in five years, never mind twenty.

Puts things into perspective.

Tim Cook is gay, believes in climate change, and cares deeply about racial equality. Deal with it (and please spare us if you can't).

I'd really love to see Apple push their way into education internationally, and I mean really push. The knock on effect of kids using Macs on a day to day basis could be huge. Here in the UK, I'm just not seeing it… yet.

I object to the use by the reporter of the term "family-oriented" to describe socially conservative Christianity. I'm quite "family-oriented" myself -- I love my son and my mother and father -- but I have no objections to The Family Guy or Apple advertising on it. Who was the organization?

Twenty years ago, in March of 1992, Apple released the Macintosh LCII. It had a 16MHz processor, 1 core, a 500 byte cache, a 40-80MB hard disk (the size of a single Photoshop file), and 2MB of memory (with a max of 10MB). It cost $1240, which is $2003 in 2012 dollars.

I have one of those! Got it for a buck when my old elementary school was torn down.

I was pulled towards this article because the title promised a new view on Tim Cook's presentation. But no.

The article doesn't support the title at all. There is not one example of wit, passion or analytical focus beyond what you might expect from any CEO.

Not that the article contradicts the title.

It's just that there apparently was this personal feeling Daniel Eran Dilger had about Cook during the meeting, which he then found neccessary to express in the title - but sadly couldn't translate into human language to support it.

I get the feeling that Cook is more of, or at least more openly comfortable with being a philanthropist than Jobs was.

Apple has enormous power and resources and to see them under Cook's leadership take such positive steps that they are, makes me feel good about the company. If I need to list the noticeable changes for everyone I will.

I get the feeling that Cook is more of, or at least more openly comfortable with being a philanthropist than Jobs was.

Apple has enormous power and resources and to see them under Cook's leadership take such positive steps that they are, makes me feel good about the company. If I need to list the noticeable changes for everyone I will.

Tim seems to be the right person for the "sweet spot" of the next 5 years. He's Apple enough to know what to do but seems sensible enough to avoid the downsides of the brashness and eccentricities of Steve. Sure, Steve continuing on at Apple would be my first choice but this is good enough for now. I think I'm going to enjoy the ride through to 2018. I'm no longer an Apple fanatic, but hey, they do make some pretty good (and addicting!) stuff, and I've built a recent career largely due to their ecosystem, so, colour me happy.